December 31, 2012

Hello and happy New Year's Eve! We're settled in for a fun family night and I'm crossing my fingers the kids can hang in there until Midnight.

I wanted to make one last card for 2012 and how fun is this Hoot Hoot Hooray set for New Year's Eve??

I went pretty clean and simple for this card - these owls are just too cute not to take center stage. I started with a card base and matte of Choice Snow White Card Stock and then cut out a circle from a sheet of Gnome Sweet Gnome 6x6 Paper from My Mind's Eye. I used the dies from the set to cut out the little owls and the branch, which is cut from more of the Gnome Sweet Gnome paper - super easy!

Thanks so much for stopping by today - I hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's Eve!

December 30, 2012

Hello! Are you looking for the latest Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge? Since it is a super busy time of year, we will be taking a break this week and will return to our normally scheduled program on January 6th. In the meantime, if you are itching to get creative with any of our previous sketches, you can view them all in one place in our Sweet Sunday Sketchbook.

December 27, 2012

Hello and happy Thursday to you! I'm still in my post Christmas coma - you know, the mess is slowly disappearing and we're working on all of those left overs (tamales and green chili!) and we're starting to get back into our normal routine.

Today, Taylor has announced on the Taylored Expressions blog that I will be leaving the Baker's Dozen at the end of December. It's such a bittersweet moment for me - I have loved this team from day one and I will miss working with each of them so much! When I first started following Taylor's blog, she was selling ribbon and her handmade cards - and now she has this amazing company and has blessed me so much with her friendship. She is so sweet and beautiful and I am very happy I was able to meet her and her amazing family while helping at several CHA conventions.

I remember how nervous I was to create cards for my first release as a Baker's Dozen member! GASP!! Here's a peek at one from March 2009 -

Hehe! It's like looking back at baby pictures! I love looking back to see how much my style has changed and stayed the same, and how I've improved on my coloring too!

Here are some of my favorite cards over the years -

Taylor, thank you so much for giving me my very first DT gig - you are truly the most amazing woman and I have loved working with you and getting to know you over the past few years. What an amazing experience and I will cherish it always.

December 21, 2012

Hello! Happy Friday everyone! I'm popping in a little early to post the winner of the next Guest Sweet Sunday Stamper since it is going to be a tad bit crazy for us this weekend (and for many of you I'm sure) and I want to give the winner plenty of time to stamp over the week too. Are you ready? There was a HUGE snowman theme this week! I loves me some snowmen!

Here are 5 of my faves -

Katie created this gorgeous card full of warm, winter goodness. I love the shading behind the snowman - he really stands out!

I love Tangii's take on the sketch - the bow is gorgeous and I adore the little arrows and hearts.

Tracy's bears are the sweetest ever! I love their matching scarves and the glitter around the circle. Super cute!

Shannon's fun snowman has the best hat - I love how she colored him and the twine and snowflakes are so cute!

I love the layered banners Stacey added to her card and the little sentiment strip is so clever!

And the winner is....

Shannon!

Congrats, Shannon! I'll be contacting you shortly with the next
sketch and your guest stamper badge.

Thanks again to everyone who played along this week. Don't forget, there is still time to enter your card for SSSC174, which endsnext Friday night.

December 18, 2012

It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge.
This is a monthly opportunity for us to share what makes our stamping
studios hum. Each month we will have a fun, crafty question so we can
share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

The challenge for December is:

Inspiration is all around us. Many of us learned to stamp by CASEing other stampers we admired. (CASE = Copy and Share Everything) We want everyone to know that, not only is CASEing perfectly OK, it's actually pretty flattering and a lot of fun! And it can be especially helpful in the midst of the busy holiday season when it's hard to think straight! So take some inspiration from your fellow Baker's Dozen Teammates, and show us how you can turn any great inspiration into a fabulous holiday card!

How fun is this?! I love to draw inspiration from other stampers and it is especially helpful when I'm in a creative slump. I chose to CASE the amazingly talented Jodi Collins - she has such a sweet style and I adore the colors she uses in her cards. They are always so bold and brilliant and she's one of my stamping heroes, so there's that. Haha!

Here is Jodi's card I chose to CASE and you can see all the details about this fabulous card in the TE Gallery, HERE.

And here is my take on her card -

I changed a couple of things from Jodi's card - I switched up her cupcakes for Make a Snowflake Dies and I switched out the patterned paper for some Merry & Bright by Carta Bella. I tried to keep the color scheme the same, which I loved, so pink and blue snowflakes it is! I added a few Black Rhinestones in the snowflake centers and then added some Clear Twinkles along the scallops and Silver Rhinestones on the pink paper. I tried to keep with Jodi's fun style by matting the card in dark card stock and I hope she likes it. Such a fun card to CASE!

Here's a little detail shot of the snowflakes with that sparkly black bling. Yum!

The rest of the Baker's Dozen are finding inspiration as well, so please stop by and see:

December 17, 2012

The MFT Design Team Creative Challenge is a monthly feature, where
we are challenged to explore our creative side using a specific theme,
product, or technique. This month, we were challenged to do some
background building using our MFT Stamps and Die-namics. Be sure to
check out the MFT Blog for a list of all participating designers who
have a project to share with you today.

For my card today, I used Darling Dots. I adore this set and it makes quick and easy backgrounds that are so sweet!

December 16, 2012

It's time for another Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge! Here
is the deal: make a card with this layout and use the InLinkz button
down at the very end of this post to enter your card. The links will
close in two weeks, next Friday at 10 PM (Mountain Time). Be sure to
link directly to the blog post or gallery image which features your
card. You may post a picture of the sketch on your blog, but please
save the image to your computer first. Use the keyword SSSC174 if you plan to post your card in an online gallery.

WANT TO BE A GUEST Sweet Sunday Stamper?
I'll be picking my favorite card or project after each challenge and
that winner will have a special guest spot as a designer on a future
Sweet Sunday Challenge. I'm SO excited about this! You can enter as
many different cards as you'd like before the following Friday deadline,
so get stampy!

I will be announcing the next Guest Sweet Sunday Stamper later this
week, so be sure to check back to see if you will be joining the design
team for SSSC175!

December 13, 2012

Welcome to the December edition of the Taylored Expressions Monthly
Calendar Challenge! You are all invited to play along - all you need
to do is use any calendar product from the TE store and link your project to the Inlinkz button on Taylor's blog.
If you play along in 10 or more of the monthly challenges, you will be
entered in a drawing to win a TE prize pack valued at over $150!!
Please use the keyword TECALCHAL
when entering your project to online
galleries.

Getting a late start? It's perfectly okay - all you need to
do is link up your projects at any time in the coordinating month's
Inlinkz on Taylor's blog before December 31st.